


Legend of the Keepers

by thegenuineimitation



Series: Keepers of the Worlds [1]
Category: Digimon Adventure, Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Action/Adventure, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Developing Friendships, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Harry Potter is Digidestined, Series Rewrite
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-13
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:47:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 16,078
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24157612
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegenuineimitation/pseuds/thegenuineimitation
Summary: When his Uncle Vernon’s company, Grunnings, lands an exclusive contract with a Japanese building firm, Harry Potter is promptly shipped off to summer camp and the course of his life is changed forever.
Relationships: Ishida Yamato | Matt Ishida & Takaishi Takeru | T.K. Takaishi, Ishida Yamato | Matt Ishida & Yagami Taichi | Tai Kamiya, Izumi Koushirou | Izzy Izumi & Harry Potter, Kido Jou | Joe Kido & Tachikawa Mimi, Takenouchi Sora & Yagami Taichi | Tai Kamiya, Yagami Hikari | Kari Kamiya & Yagami Taichi | Tai Kamiya
Series: Keepers of the Worlds [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1743340
Comments: 4
Kudos: 33





	1. Arc One: Part One - Chapter One

**July 30th 1999**

* * *

Harry Potter was sitting on a sun-warmed rock looking out over a glassy lake, planning what he would do to celebrate his upcoming birthday when a feather-light brush of cold kissed at the arch of his cheek.

He looked up and blinked for a moment trying to process the sight in front of him.

Beneath his legs he could still feel the warmth of the day seeping into his skin from the stone, but the air above his nose was suddenly filled with fluffy ponderous snowflakes. They drifted fat and lazy, from a sky that was quickly turning from clear cornflower blue to an ominous gunmetal grey.

“What the—” he muttered to himself, climbing to his feet.

Was this normal?

He glanced around surreptitiously and found that everyone around him seemed just as amazed and confused. Their gawking faces tipped up to the sky as they scrambled out of the lake and emerged from the activity tents.

Not normal then.

Good to know that even in a place as different from Surrey as Japan they didn’t often suffer snowstorms in July.

The wind picked up, moving across the campground, a wall of howling, frigid air and in a moment, everyone started moving, making a mad dash for the nearest cabins, abandoning sports equipment and leaving the tents to be flattened by the sudden gale.

In seconds the gentle flurry turned into a whiteout.

“Everybody, get inside! This way, hurry!” Harry heard a counselor call.

Harry turned and sprinted for the cabin he shared with two other boys.

This cabin also just happened to be closest to the lake, and was packed with eight other people who and taken shelter and were waiting for the summer blizzard to let up.

The other kids were murmuring amongst each other as they gathered around the single window and watched the snow pile up.

Kawakami-san, one of their counselors, banged open the door bundled up in a jacket that clearly didn’t belong to her with clumps of snow falling off the brim of her hat to do a quick headcount and admonish everyone to stay inside until the snow let up, and then they were left to their own devices.

Harry wasn’t eager to try his luck at grabbing a spot near the window, and sat himself next to his bunkmate, Koushiro seating himself cross-legged on the end of the other boy's bed.

Koushiro, rather than attempting to witness one of nature's stranger phenomena, was tapping at his keyboard rapidly and fiddling with his cell phone. His face twisting into a scowl when he didn't get the desired response out of either one.

He looked up briefly when Harry sat down next to him, offering a small quirk of his lips.

"Hey Harry," he greeted.

Harry cocked his head and gestured to the laptop in clear question.

Koushiro grimaced.

"It's still not working. This storm is making a mess of my infrared internet connection," he explained closing up his laptop with a brisk snap and strapping it back into his backpack.

Koushiro never went anywhere without his backpack, but as far as Harry knew the only thing that he ever carried in the thing were cables and other electronic devices, all of them far sleeker and more sophisticated than anything Harry was used to seeing.

“I was hoping to pull some of the satellite data for my analysis,” he sighed, rubbing absently at the back of his neck. “Did you know irregular climate deviations have been happening all over the world for the past six months? There’s been over a dozen reported cases over heavily populated areas but my analysis suggests that it’s a much larger global pattern than anybody realizes.”

Harry didn’t understand everything Koushiro was trying to say, his vocabulary tended to be far more advanced than anyone else’s, but he nodded in agreement just the same.

It was a safe bet. Koushiro was usually right, no matter what he was talking about.

As Koushiro continued to talk Harry couldn’t help the fond smile that curled in the corner of his mouth, and let his mind wander.

Harry had never once enjoyed a summer holiday before this one.

In his experience the end of the school year heralded an extra six or seven hours or chores, presided over by his Aunt Petunia, and many more opportunities for his cousin, Dudley, and his little gang to engage in their favourite sport – Harry Hunting.

Harry Hunting was exactly what it sounded like, an excuse for Dudley’s gang to chase him around the neighbourhood, and to beat him up if they happened to catch him. Fortunately, Harry was smaller, faster and smarter than Dudley and his gang and they couldn’t often manage it. Whether they caught him or not though, the whole experience was unpleasant.

One memorable day about a year ago in the hottest part of August, Harry had been forced to wedge himself in behind a dumpster and pinch his nose against the stench of fetid garbage juice for a half-hour until they all finally went off. And then, of course, Aunt Petunia had taken one look at him and made him wash up outside with the garden hose and locked him straight back into his cupboard without supper.

That was what Harry had come to expect out of summer vacation, but now, sitting on a sun-warmed rock overlooking a glassy lake with not a single Dursley in sight, he was beginning to see the appeal.

This run of unexpected good fortune had all started a few weeks previous, when Harry's Uncle Vernon received the opportunity he had been waiting for his entire career.

Uncle Vernon worked in the sales office of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills, and had been handed the opportunity to negotiate an exclusive contract with the head of a wealthy Japanese construction company.

A successful negotiation would mean a promotion, a pay-raise, a new car and the opportunity to purchase a lovely vacation home in Majorca.

These were all important things for Uncle Vernon. This was why, when his boss informed him that he and his family would have to move to Tokyo for half the year while the details were finalized to foster good relations between the two companies, Uncle Vernon told him that it was no problem.

Aunt Petunia had been a bit upset as there were a number of reasons why this would, in fact, be a problem, and the least of those reasons had been what they were going to do with Harry.

Harry’s existence was one of the most closely guarded secrets in the Dursley household. His mother had been Aunt Petunia's sister and she and his father had died in a car accident when Harry was small.

He had been living with the Dursleys ever since.

Harry wasn't precisely sure why, but his relatives had always hated him from as far back as he could remember. He was about as welcome in their house as mouse-droppings and they liked to think of him as though he were something slimy and repulsive that could never understand them.

They liked to demonstrate this in a number of small but important ways.

Rather than giving him one of the two extra bedrooms in their house on Privet Drive Harry had been squeezed into the cupboard under the stairs. Rather than buying him jumpers and trainers that fit, Harry had always been clothed in the rattiest of Dudley’s castoffs. Rather than giving him a place at the dinner table he could eat scraps from their family meal as soon as the cooking and washing up was done.

The Dursleys may have suffered him to live in their house, but he wasn’t a part of their family.

When he was quite small this had bothered him, but as he grew up a bit it became just another fact of life and he could no more change the Dursleys attitude towards him than he could change the color of the sky.

The problem, he’d determined, was that the Dursleys had a fixation that bordered on obsession with being the same as everyone else and, even as a small baby, Harry had been different.

If they could have locked him away forever and denied his very existence the Dursleys would have done so in a heartbeat, but by the same token if they ever wanted to be rid of him, they needed to let him into the world to attend school.

As it was, the only people in Little Whinging who knew that Aunt Petunia was his guardian were his teachers, the principal of the school, and the office secretary. The rest of the neighbourhood thought of him as ‘that Potter boy’ and were quite certain he was bad news.

What it came down to was that Uncle Vernon's coworkers had no clue that he had a nephew, much less that the boy was living with him, and Uncle Vernon was determined to keep it that way. Since they couldn't leave him with anyone in England for six full months the Dursleys were forced to take him along to Japan and arrange for him to disappear until the start of the school year. 

Uncle Vernon had quickly found what he deemed the perfect solution.

They had barely arrived in Tokyo when Harry and his meagre luggage were hustled onto a bus full of children around his age and driven into the countryside for two months of educational and organized fun at a sleep-away summer camp.

Harry had never been to camp before, and neither had Dudley, so he hadn’t been entirely sure what to expect.

Summer camp, according to the things Harry heard eavesdropping on his classmates was meant to be fun and exciting.

In practice, camp turned out to be a little uncomfortable and even a bit boring. The activities were regimented and educational, and the counselors were all very strict and responsible, and Harry was stuck in a strange place, with strange people, who often spoke about as much English as Harry did Japanese.

Despite this, camp was still, in Harry’s considered opinion, loads better than spending the hols at Privet Drive. He had very few chores, all the food he could want at mealtimes, and plenty of time in between activities to lie in the sun and just relax.

The only thing that would have made the entire experience better was if he’d had more opportunity to learn Japanese before they’d left England. After three weeks he was finally starting to pick it up more easily, and could generally understand what people were talking about, but had a lot of trouble speaking and answering questions.

If he could speak proper Japanese, Harry was convinced, he might have half a chance at making a friend, something that he’d never had before.

Back home, Dudley was always quick to beat up anyone who had the passing thought about being nice to Harry. But since Dudley wasn’t here, Harry wanted to at least make an attempt at making a friend.

Harry had decided early on that he would like to try to befriend the outgoing Yagami Taichi who was a little strange, wore goggles on his head, was obsessed with football and collected friends the way other people collected stamps.

It actually probably wouldn’t have been that difficult to go up to Taichi and offer to join in one of the seemingly endless parade of pick-up games and make friends that way, but as the days stretched on it became more and more difficult to just—do.

Koushiro, was really cool too, Harry thought wistfully. He was patient and smart and didn’t mind when Harry had to have things explained to him, or stayed up late reading because he woke up in the middle of the night and couldn't get back to sleep.

Likely, this was because Koushiro was always so absorbed in whatever it was he was doing on his computer that he barely noticed these oddities.

It was hard to consider someone who devoted a maximum of half his attention to him a friend, but it was the closest thing to friendship Harry had ever experienced, and better than Harry probably deserved.

Harry was jolted out of his musings when Taichi shouted: “It’s finally stopped!” and promptly flung the door open and ran out into the fresh snow, letting in a shocking gust of cold air.

The blizzard had stopped as suddenly as it had sprung up, and the other kids were filing out of the cabin eager to play in the two or three inches of snow that had settled on the ground and in the trees, coating the campground in a layer of twinkling white.

"I'm gonna build the biggest snowman!" one of the younger kids declared.

An older guy, Yamato, ran out after him, calling: "Takeru be careful!"

One of the girls shivered in her yellow and white tank top standing in the doorway.

"It's so cold, it’s hard to believe it’s really summer, and I didn't think to bring a jacket."

“Me neither,” admitted Koushiro. “I admit, I hadn’t predicted that I would be affected by these strange climactic phenomena.”

The girl hummed her agreement, adjusting her hat to better cover her ears.

“I hope the camp has extra blankets in storage or this is going to get uncomfortable pretty quickly.”

Despite the cold, she followed the others outside and Koushiro followed her, scooping his backpack up and settling it over his shoulders.

Harry didn’t have a jacket either, he didn’t actually own one, but he did have a flannel shirt that was warm if a bit worse for wear, and he paused to dig it out of his luggage, which left him alone with an older boy he hadn’t seen much around the camp and a girl he’d talked with a few times who’s name was Mimi.

The boy was tall and skinny and wore glasses like Harry. Although, unlike Harry, his frames weren’t held together with tape and determination. He took one horrified look outside and began to step back further into the cabin.

"I was worried about catching a summer cold, but this, this is even worse," he said. “If nobody wants to wait inside, we should at least gather everybody up and head for the counselors’ cabin.”

Mimi bounced up next to him and shoved him outside in front of her.

“You’re too serious Jou, look at how pretty the fresh snow is! I should have packed my fluffy pink boots!"

Harry yanked his flannel shirt on and followed them to where the rest of the kids had gathered on the shore of the lake.

A couple of them were lobbing snowballs at each other and Mimi was loudly contemplating the benefits of getting the back of her dress wet in order to make a snow angel.

Harry jogged up to Koushiro, trying to ignore the wetness seeping into his socks through the holes in his trainers, and tapped him on the shoulder.

“Can you work it now?” he asked in halting Japanese, gesturing at his computer

"Oh! No, it’s no good," Koushiro said. "The storm is still in the atmosphere. Just because its stopped snowing doesn't mean that we aren't technically right in the middle of the storm. If I had internet access, I could pull up satellite images of the storm cell and show you but—"

"Hey! What's-your-name, foreign kid! Koushiro! You guys have got to see this!" Taichi called, waving them over.

Sharing a glance Harry and Koushiro jogged forward to join the others standing on the snow-covered outcropping overlooking the lake.

“Up there, you see that?” said Taichi, pointing.

The sky was clear of clouds, despite the recent snow, and just above the horizon a diaphanous curtain of pale blue, green, and pink wavered.

Harry gaped. He'd never seen anything like it.

"Wow, it's so beautiful, magical even!" said Mimi.

"Yes, but what is it?" said Koushiro.

"Maybe an aurora?" suggested the girl in the hat.

"You mean aurora borealis, the northern lights? That's impossible. We're way too far south, you’d never see them in Japan, not even in Hokkaido," Koushiro replied.

"Yeah, I guess, but what else would you call this?" the girl retorted.

“Unknown atmospheric phenomenon,” Koushiro answered promptly.

"Uh, huh, that’s really great guys but I really think we should get back inside before we all come down with pneumonia," said the boy with the glasses.

"And miss this?" said Yamato, "The sky is like…short circuiting."

“What is _that_?” said Taichi.

Harry squinted up into the sky past the lazily undulating aurora, and spotted it.

A whirling vortex of green was forming past the trailing edge of the aurora and slowly growing larger. In the eye of the vortex was a pale light that was growing steadily brighter. 

Harry waited for Koushiro to give some kind of an explanation but he could present any theories, the light suddenly split into eight separate pieces and sped towards them like falling stars.

“Look out!”

The kids all shrieked and ducked down with their arms over their heads.

Yamato was quick to cover Takeru, sheltering him with his own body.

The lights crashed into the ground booming crack, like thunder, sending up clouds of steam where they hit the snow. The ground shook at the impact and snow and dirt went flying in great puffs.

"Everyone, alright?" asked the girl when the snow had settled back to earth. “No injuries?”

"We're alright," said Yamato.

“All good here,” added Taichi.

"That was scary," said Mimi, clutching the brim of her hat.

"What was that?" Jou asked.

Koushiro inched towards the nearest fallen star on his hands and knees.

"Maybe a meteorite?" he suggested peering down at the hole.

Whatever it was, it was still glowing blue and bright where it had fallen.

“I don’t think meteors do that, but what do I know,” said Taichi.

“Not much,” Yamato retorted, leaning over to get a closer look.

“No Taichi’s right, for once,” said the girl. “I’ve never seen anything like this.”

“Guys, I really think we should go get an adult,” Jou said, pushing his glasses a bit further up his nose. “We don’t want to be messing around with these things, who knows what they could do to us? They could be dangerous. They could be radioactive!”

The others mostly ignored him.

Koushiro scrambled to his feet, gasping, as the lights, whatever they were, floated up out of the snow, each one bathed in a ribbon of soft blue light.

They all stared, transfixed.

Taichi was the first one brave enough to reach out to try and grab one.

When nothing happened to him the others quickly followed suit, although Jou took so long to work up the courage to do it that his, whatever it was, almost escaped.

As soon as Harry touched the light nearest to him, he felt a sense of rightness wash through him. Like a puzzle piece slotting into place.

The light faded and left him holding a little electrical device.

It fit easily in the palm of his hand, vaguely square in shape, with a black screen and a few small buttons set into the front, as well as what looked like a squat rubbery antenna. The back had a small clip and Harry quickly followed Taichi’s example and clipped the little doodad to his belt

Koushiro was examining the device in his hand with naked fascination poking carefully at the buttons and squinting at the strange runic symbols etched around the screen.

The girl seemed equally fascinated, chewing thoughtfully on her lower lip as she flipped hers over.

"What are these things do you think?" she asked.

"Not a pager or a cell phone, but something along those lines technologically speaking. My guess is some sort of miniature remote digital apparatus," Koushiro answered. “Though why something like this would be falling out of the sky is beyond the scope of my imagination.”

“It’s funny isn’t it,” said Yamato.

“What’s funny?” asked the girl.

“I mean that there’s one for each of us, isn’t that kind of weird?”

“Very weird,” agreed the girl.

"What, no instructions?" joked Yagami, tapping the girl’s device with a finger.

“Stop that Taichi, you’ll break it!”

“Did you see how hard it hit the ground?” retorted Taichi.

“Hey, look,” Takeru piped up. “Mine’s doing something.”

Harry noticed that the screen of Takeru's device had gone from black to glowing green, as had Koushiro’s and the girl’s. Checking his own little device, he saw that it was doing the same.

“Another synchronized event. I wonder if they’re being activated and controlled by a remote server,” muttered Koushiro.

"Oh no!" shrieked Mimi pointing with one hand while the other hand kept a firm grip on her precious hat. “The lake!”

The group looked up from the strange electrical thingamabobs to see that, for no apparent reason, the lake had risen up to become a sheer wall of water.

“Run!” someone shouted.

“There’s no time, everybody just hang-on to something!”

Harry yelped as suddenly the ground under his feet twisted and the world seemed to tilt and shift. Someone went screaming past him.

Harry scrabbled at the snow and dirt everything feeling strangely frictionless and insubstantial under his fingers as he slid, tumbling sideways into what had been a lake and was now doing a fair impression of the Parting of the Red Sea.

Harry thought he heard Mimi's voice, but as he tumbled through water and air and lights and color, he became so confused he couldn't be sure if he'd actually heard her or if it was just something he'd imagined.

Then he hit something solid and everything went black.


	2. Chapter Two

When Harry came to the first thing that he noticed was that nothing hurt.

After hurtling through a vortex of light and sound that defied both explanation and physics this came as a pleasant surprise. Harry had been pretty sure he’d slammed into something in all the confusion, but he hadn’t even skinned a knee.

Cautiously he opened his eyes and sat up. Settling his glasses more firmly on his nose.

One glance was enough to tell him that wherever he was now, it certainly wasn’t where he’d been before.

For one thing, it was warm and humid and sweat was already beading on his brow. There wasn’t a single fleck of snow anywhere. For another thing, no matter where he looked all he saw was trees, trees, and more trees.

There was no sign of the lake or the camp or any kind of civilization for that matter. It was all just forest. 

Harry was lying at the base of one such tree, and he sat up cautiously, still prepared for pain or queasiness, but there was none. He was perfectly fine just a little groggy, like he’d woken up from an afternoon nap.

Harry got to his feet and peeled his flannel shirt off his sweaty back, tying it around his waist.

He had the feeling that there was something that he was meant to be doing…

Turning on his heel he caught sight of Taichi, who was lying spread-eagled on the ground not far from him, and who had a round pink…something perched on his chest.

Harry was just about to call out when something brushed against his legs.

He jerked backwards, startled and looked down.

A cute little creature was perched before him with it’s two little paws set on the toe of his trainer. It was round and covered in soft-looking blue fur, from the top of its long, pointed ears to the tip of its fluffy tail.

“Hello!” chirped the creature.

“Er…hi…” said Harry, still busy goggling.

If a blue fox kit swallowed a balloon it might have looked something like this creature.

“Hello!” the creature chirped again, looking quite pleased with itself. “You are Harry!”

“Er…yeah,” Harry agreed.

“I am Niximon!” the creature told him, grinning widely enough that Harry could see the points of two pearly baby fangs.

“Good to meet you?” Harry said, a bit unsure if this was true or not.

“Yes!” agreed Niximon, making another pleased noise. “I have been waiting!”

“Waiting?”

“Yes!”

Before Harry could try and get Niximon to elaborate on what it had been waiting for exactly, since it certainly couldn’t have been Harry, Taichi started awake with a shout.

The pink, ball-like something that had been sitting on Taichi’s chest was now bouncing in front of him, equally as delighted looking as Niximon.

“Wh-what the heck are you!”

“Taichi!” crooned the pink ball. “You’re finally awake! That’s great! That’s great!”

“It’s…talking,” Taichi said, scrubbing a hand through his hair. “It knows my name?”

“Taichi!” agreed the little pink ball. “Taichi is great!”

Taichi caught the creature reflexively as it flung itself into his arms, holding it gently despite his unease.

“Taichi…er, Taichi-san,” Harry called out, waving. “Over here.”

Taichi whipped his head around, breathing a sigh of relief as he caught sight of Harry.

“Oh, good, I’m not the only one,” he said. “Are you okay? Do you know where we are or what’s going on?”

“I’m okay,” Harry said in careful Japanese, but that was pretty much the best he could do to answer his questions.

“Okay!” cheered Niximon.

“Another one!” Taichi said. “Just what are you little guys?”

“I’m Koromon!” the pink creature said. “I’ve been waiting for you, Taichi!”

“You were waiting for me?”

Koromon made an agreeing noise, scrunching his big eyes up in visible delight when Taichi brough him closer.

“Waiting!” Niximon agreed, winding around Harry’s ankles like a cat.

“What do you mean you were waiting for me? How did you know I would be here? Just where is here, exactly? How do you know my name?” Taichi asked.

Harry would have liked to know the answer to all of those questions and then some.

“We’re partners!” Koromon declared.

“Partners!” Niximon echoed, swishing her tail.

Taichi glanced over at Harry, checking to see if Harry had figured out what the heck these adorable puff-balls were talking about. He didn’t have any better idea about what that meant than Taichi.

Partners? Partners for what?

Before either Taichi or Harry could ask the question though another familiar voice filtered through the background noise of the forest.

“Taichi-san,” said Koushiro, emerging from a nearby patch of undergrowth. “I thought that was your voice. And Harry too, thank goodness. I thought I was alone here for a moment.”

“What are you saying, Koushiro!” declared an unfamiliar voice. “Of course, you are not alone! I am here with you!”

Out from behind Koushiro a smaller figure emerged. Another creature, like Niximon and Koromon but in the shape of a pale pink ghost, with little arms. It moved easily on little jelly-like pseudopods and stuck as close to Koushiro’s side as Niximon did to Harry’s.

Startled again, Taichi accidentally dropped Koromon who bounced away.

“Koushiro! What is _that_?”

Harry thought that this was a bit unfair. It was pretty clear that whatever the tiny ghost, amoeba thing was it was the same kind of thing as Niximon and Koromon. And at least Koushiro’s little creature didn’t have a mouthful of sharp teeth.

“I am Motimon, of course!” he said. “A pleasure to meet you!”

“Motimon!” chirruped Niximon. “Hello!”

“Ah, Niximon, Koromon,” greeted Motimon. “I am pleased to see you have already united with your chosen! Congratulations!”

“Chosen!” crooned Niximon, looking up at Harry with her big adoring blue eyes.

Well, Harry wasn’t made of stone.

He bent down and scooped Niximon up into his arms and held her close, receiving a delighted little mrp for his efforts as she burrowed into the crook of his arm.

She was just as soft as she looked, and lighter than Harry had expected.

“Yes, well,” said Koushiro, clearing his throat. “He’s been following me since I woke up here. I have no idea what’s going on, but I am glad to see you both. You’re alright? No injuries?”

“Not one,” agreed Taichi. “I feel great, except for the fact that I have no idea where we are or what happened.”

“This is File Island,” Motimon informed them.

“That’s right!” Koromon agreed. “File Island!”

“That’s what he says, anyway,” said Koushiro. “I, for one, have never heard of such a place, but the subtropical flora would suggest that we’re not anywhere in Japan, which doesn’t seem possible. Even if we were kidnapped it’s still early in the afternoon, that’s hardly enough time to smuggle us out of the country.”

“We weren’t kidnapped,” Taichi retorted. “We just, kind of…fell…”

“Yes, well, pardon me for trying to come up with a rational explanation for the total collapse of the laws of physics.”

Taichi shook his head as though to clear it of an unpleasant thought and said, “I’m going to take a look around.”

He grabbed onto a low-hanging branch of the nearest tree and began to climb. Koromon followed after him eagerly with an energetic combination of bouncing and swinging from his long ears.

Koushiro bent down to poke at the loose soil and grasses at the base of the nearest tree his brow furrowed in concentration as he began to mutter to himself.

“The vegetation is lush and the relative humidity is high but the soil seems curiously devoid of moisture…”

Harry turned his attention back to Niximon, who seemed perfectly content to rest in his arms and was making a subvocal trilling noise just a little too musical to be called a purr.

“Er, Niximon,” he asked. “Where is File Island?”

“File Island is in Digi World,” Niximon answered promptly.

“Digi World?” Harry parroted. “Where’s that?”

Niximon blinked and cocked her little head at him.

“Digi World is here,” she said, as though this should have been obvious.

“No, er, what I mean is, where is it on Earth?” he tried to clarify.

“What is Earth?” asked Niximon, the tip of her tail swishing. 

“Er,” Harry said. “It’s not important.”

And it wasn’t really because either Niximon just didn’t understand what he meant, or they weren’t on Earth anymore. And that was really far too terrifying to think about.

“Harry, have you ever seen anything like this?” Koushiro interrupted, holding out a broad spade-shaped leaf for his inspection.

Harry shook his head no, and then shrugged to indicate that he wasn’t an expert on tropical plants either way.

Niximon examined Koushiro’s offering critically before proclaiming: “Leaf!” with certainty.

Koushiro and Harry shared a look, but Niximon looked so pleased with herself that Harry really didn’t have the heart to tell her that hadn’t been what Koushiro was asking.

Just then Taichi cried out in alarm, and Harry and Koushiro looked up in time to see a red and black beetle the size of a transport truck crash through the canopy, flying right for Taichi and Koromon, sending branches and leaves flying as it cut through the tops of the nearby trees.

It narrowly missed Taichi and Koromon and as it passed overhead it let out a bone-rattling roar of frustration.

It was a horrible, grating sound, nothing that Harry would have ever expected a beetle to make. Then again, he also didn’t expect beetles to be much bigger than walnuts so what did he really know?

“Oh no!” wailed Motimon. “It’s Kuwagamon!”

“What’s a Kuwagamon?” demanded Koushiro.

“Kuwagamon is a truly atrocious Digimon! His teeth are like knives and his scissor hands can cut through anything!” Motimon explained.

“He’s coming back!” Harry warned, watching as Kuwagamon wheeled in the air.

“Taichi!” squealed Koromon, high above them.

Harry watched, his heart in his throat as Koromon threw himself out of the tree and into the path of the monster-beetle.

The little guy spat pink bubbles into Kuwagamon’s face, throwing off the big bugs trajectory just enough that Taichi was able to avoid its pincers and went tumbling out of the tree.

“Taichi-san!” shouted Koushiro.

“I’m fine!”

Taichi staggered out of the bushes, looking a bit rattled but none the worse for wear.

“Koromon!”

Koromon had landed a little further away and had clearly gotten the worst of Kuwagamon’s attack.

Taichi was quick to scoop him up and hold him close.

“Reckless idiot,” he scolded. “What was that? That bug is a hundred times your size!”

“Sorry, Taichi.”

“You’re pretty brave for being such a little guy,” Taichi said. “I would have been a goner if it wasn’t for you, so…thanks.”

“Taichi!”

“It’s coming back this way,” Koushiro warned. “What do we do?”

“Oh dear, oh dear!” squeaked Motimon. “Run! This way, everybody, follow me!”

The three of them turned and ran after Motimon, who was more than able to keep ahead of them despite not having proper legs or feet.

Behind them, Kuwagamon roared again and Harry could hear the crunch and crack of falling trees growing louder.

“Hurry!” urged Motimon. “In here!”

Motimon waved them forward towards a large tree.

He ran right towards it. For a moment the trunk rippled like water and then Motimon was gone.

Harry blinked, not sure exactly what it was he’d just seen.

“What is—” Koushiro started to say, echoing his confusion.

“No time! Come on!” Taichi said, yanking him forward by the wrist.

Once again, the tree flowed around them and then Koushiro and Taichi disappeared.

“Harry!” said Niximon, wriggling in his arms urgently. “Hurry! You have to go inside the tree!”

Kuwagamon roared again, louder than before.

Harry closed his eyes and ran at the tree, surprised when he didn’t immediately hit something solid despite himself.

He blinked and Taichi yanked him down to where the others were huddled together on the floor.

Inside the tree was a cylindrical room, like a tube, lined with metal panelling. Above them there’s a gap in the canopy that hadn’t been there before and Harry can see right up into the sky.

“This place…” whispered Koushiro. “It’s projecting a hologram of a tree.”

“It’s a hiding tree,” Motimon explained.

“Quiet!” hissed Niximon. “He’s coming!”

They all huddled close together with their hands over their ears and their eyes squeezed firmly shut, listening as Kuwagamon wreaked destruction on the surrounding trees and roaring in frustration when he couldn’t find them.

Harry cracked one eye open and watched, as in the tiny sliver of visible sky, Kuwagamon climbed higher into the air and flew off.

They remained still and quiet for another long moment straining their ears.

“It’s all clear!”

The boys all jumped, not expecting to hear another voice.

“He’s gone,” she said. “No need to hide anymore.”

“Sora!”

Taichi slid out of the confines of the hologram, sharing a glance Koushiro and Harry followed after him more tentatively.

Outside the tree stood the girl from camp, the one in the blue hat and yellow top. Next to her was a small pink creature with a delicate looking flower growing out of the top of its head.

“Scary place, right?” said the girl, Sora.

“Nah,” said Taichi, grinning. “We had it handled. We were just planning the trap we were gonna set for that big bug.”

They all stepped fully out of the tree and Sora’s little creature gave a twirl.

“Sora, it sounds like Kuwagamon is not returning this time.”

Her voice was lighter and softer than even Niximon’s.

“Guys, meet Pyocomon, my own personal something or another,” Sora said, smiling.

“I am enchanted to meet you friends of Sora!” she cooed.

“She looks kind of like a radish,” Taichi said, crouching down to examine Sora’s partner.

“She does like some sort of plant but she can speak so, she’s another one…like Motimon and Koromon?”

“Looks like,” agreed Taichi.

“Look, more!” Harry said, watching as a little white puppy-like creature with floppy ears skidded to a halt in the middle of their clearing.

“There popping up everywhere!”

“Over here!” called the puppy, who sported a set of teeth that would have made a baby shark proud. “Takeru! I’ve found them!”

“Wait up, Tokomon!”

Takeru came running out of the forest with Yamato trailing a little behind him carrying a fluffy mustard coloured ball-like creature under one arm. This creature didn’t have fangs but it did have one long black horn protruding from its forehead.

“Yamato, you too?” said Taichi.

“Yeah, I’m here too,” Yamato said. “Is this where everyone else ended up?”

“No, I mean, yeah, obviously, but you have a whatsit!”

“Oh,” said Yamato, flushing a bit. “Ah, right, this is, well…”

He trailed off with a helpless shrug.

“Hello,” greeted his partner. “You all appear pleasant. Tsunomon is my name and I am quite pleased to meet you.”

They were obviously as much a pair as Takeru and Tokomon, who were snuggling each other happily, or as Harry and Niximon.

It was all kind of starting to make sense. Not in the sense that Harry had any idea what was going on. But it seemed clear that they had all ended up here on File Island where these odd-looking but loveable creatures had been waiting for each of them.

And each creature was waiting for their _specific_ human, somehow.

That same sense of rightness that Harry felt with Niximon in his arms was echoed in the way that Yamato seemed embarrassed by his unwillingness to let go of Tsunomon and Sora’s pride in presenting the beautiful Pyocomon.

The question that needed to be answered was, among others, how did these little guys know who they were and where to wait for them?

Before he could think to ask the question out-loud, there was yet another alarmed shout, and yet another camper ran crashing through the undergrowth into their midst.

It was the older boy with glasses, Jou.

He was sweaty and dishevelled, as though he’d been running for a while, and herding him was a little grey creature with what were either fins or wings for arms and a tuft of flaming orange fur sprouting out of the top of his head. The creature was looking quite pleased with itself, but Jou looked to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

“Guys, you have to help me!” he moaned, breathing heavily. “This weird little thing is chasing me everywhere!”

“I’m not weird!” his partner said, hanging off of Jou, even as the boy attempted to cringe away from him. “My name is Pukamon!”

“And it talks!” Jou said, as though this was the worst thing that could have possibly happened.

Taichi and Sora snorted and were clearly trying to hold themselves back from laughing outright.

“What?” Jou demanded. “What’s funny? This isn’t funny guys! Look around they’re everywhere! What are they?”

“We’re digimon!” answered Motimon.

“Digimon?”

“Digital monsters! Digimon!”

“Digital monsters, huh,” said Taichi. “But what is a digital monster exactly, I mean it’s not like you guys are Godzilla.”

“No, we’re digimon!” they chorused, cheerfully missing the point.

Kuwagamon aside, these digital monsters weren’t precisely monstrous. Even with their lack of feet and mouths full of tiny baby fangs they were softer, fluffier and more adorable than any monster Harry had ever heard about.

“But what does that _mean_?” said Koushiro with a huff.

The digimon didn’t seem to know how to answer that.

“Alright, maybe let’s not ask all the hard questions at once,” Taichi suggested. “Is this everyone? Sora, Koushiro, Yamato, Smaller Yamato—”

“My name is Takeru!”

“—Jou, and Foreign Kid.”

“His name is Harry,” Koushiro corrected.

“Right. I feel like we’re missing someone?”

“There was another girl with us at the lake,” said Sora. “She was wearing a pink hat.”

“Mimi,” Harry said.

“Yeah, that sounds like Mimi,” agreed Taichi. “Has anyone seen her?”

They all shook their heads, no.

“Alright, she’s probably lost, so we should go looking—”

Taichi was cut off as a girl’s scream cut through the quiet of the forest.

“—it sounds like she’s in trouble! Come on!”

“This way!” Koromon said.

The group went running after Taichi and Koromon and they all quickly came upon Mimi and her digimon partner, a little green sprout with four legs, running in the opposite direction.

“Mimi, it’s okay! It’s not going to hurt you!” Sora called.

But it quickly became apparent that Mimi wasn’t running from her little digimon when Kuwagamon forced his way through the foliage above their heads, roaring.

“Look out!” cried Koushiro.

The group ducked as one, and Kuwagamon went rocketing over their heads. Passing close enough that they could have reached out and touched him.

Mimi collapsed to her knees in naked relief as she caught sight of the group.

“Mimi, it’s okay,” her partner said, one little foot resting on Mimi’s knee. “Tanemon’s here to protect you.”

“That’s right,” said Sora, kneeling down next to her. “We’re all here now.”

“Sora-san!” sniffled Mimi. “I was so scared.”

“It’s not over yet,” said Taichi. “Everybody, get up and run! He’s coming back!”

Harry darted a glance over his shoulder.

Kuwagamon had made a wide turn over the tops of the trees and, as Taichi said, was heading straight for them, picking up speed as he went.

“Get down!” called Yamato, throwing himself bodily over Takeru.

Harry dropped to the ground with much less graceful thud.

Just in time too. Kuwagamon swept past again, close enough to ruffle his hair.

“Wh-what was that?” Jou said, as they sat up. “What kind of place _is_ this?”

“He’s coming back!” Pyocomon reported.

Everyone scrambled to their feet and started running again.

“We can’t keep this up forever,” Taichi shouted. “We have to come up with a plan! Some way to fight him!”

“With what?” panted Sora.

“She’s right,” said Yamato, gasping. “We’re no match for that thing. Save your breath for running.”

Taichi made a noise and swatted at a low hanging branch, but there was no more talk of fighting.

“Here!” Koushiro said. “Into the trees!”

They all ducked into the thicker part of the forest where Kuwagamon would have a harder time following and Harry quickly pulled ahead of the rest of the group who weren’t used to running at a flat sprint for minutes at a stretch.

He skidded to a stop as the forest gave way to a small clearing and a jut of land that marked the edge of a plateau.

Behind him the others stopped as well, coughing and clutching at their sides.

“Great, a dead end,” said Yamato. “Anybody bring parachutes? Or a helicopter?”

Taichi inched forward, testing the ground every few feet until he reached the edge of the cliff and peeked over it.

“Yeah, there’s no way down that,” he called back to them. “We’ll have to go another way.”

“What other way?” Sora demanded, shrilly.

As if to punctuate that statement, Kuwagamon finally managed to force his way through the thicker copse of trees and everyone and their digimon had to flatten themselves to the ground to avoid being trampled.

Taichi rolled to his feet and began to run back towards them.

“Now’s our chance!” said Sora. “Let’s run, back the way we came!”

“Taichi!” cried Koromon.

Kuwagamon’s sharp turn had put him too close to Taichi, there was no way he’d make it back to the group in time.

Harry and the others froze with indecision. They couldn't just leave without him!

“Taichi!”

Koromon flung himself bodily at Kuwagamon’s head, spitting those pink bubbles at the larger digimon’s eyes in a steady stream and forcing him to veer a little off course.

Koromon hit the beetle digimon’s flat carapace and bounced off, rolling along his back until he was knocked down again by the downstroke of one massive wing.

Kuwagamon roared his annoyance and turned to dive at the rest of the group where they all stood, frozen, having lost their chance to get away.

Harry clenched his eyes shut and prepared for impact, only for them to pop open again when Niximon launched herself past his ear with a fierce, piping war cry.

“Digimon attack!” called Tanemon.

As one, the smaller digimon hurled themselves between Kuwagamon and their human partners, shrieking angrily and spitting bubbles of all colors at the massive insectoid.

Somehow, it was enough.

Kuwagamon tried to bank away from them and instead crashed headlong into the tangled vines and close growing trees of the forest behind them and didn't get up again.

They were safe for another moment.

But Niximon was lying on the ground, not moving, a bright shock of blue fur with her tail dragging in the dust.

Harry felt his heart clench in his chest as he ran to his digimon.

If she was hurt or worse because of him—

Harry dropped to his knees beside her laying a hesitant hand on her flank.

“Niximon…”

She blinked one big blue eye open blearily and her tail twitched.

“Harry?”

“I’m here,” he said, around the sudden lump in his throat. “Are you badly hurt? Can you move?”

“Move? Do I have to?”

Taking that as his answer Harry blinked his stinging eyes and with aching gentleness lifted Niximon into his arms.

She was just as soft as before, her fur silky against his skin but somehow all he could think was just how light and insubstantial she was, how delicate.

“Idiot,” Harry heard Taichi say, his voice shaking. “How could you do something so rash?”

“I had to protect you, Taichi,” said Koromon. “I’ll always protect you.”

Harry looked down at Niximon to find that she was watching him with eyes that were a deep and fathomless blue and somehow he knew that if he were to ask her why she had just risked her life for a kid she'd known for maybe an hour in total she’d say the exact same thing.

No one had ever felt that way about him before.

Like he was worth protecting.

Kuwagamon chose that moment to burst back out from the cover of the trees, walking on two of his spindly legs and shedding leaves and bits of vines as he went.

Harry felt something hot and fierce well up inside him even as he scrambled backwards, bringing himself and Niximon closer to the safety of the group.

If he’d had any idea how to manage it, and have even the smallest chance of not getting himself killed in the attempt, he would have thrown himself at Kuwagamon and scratched his beady, multifaceted eyes out.

Niximon sat up straighter in his arms.

“How is this thing still coming?” Taichi asked. “What did we ever do to it?”

“Kuwagamon likely hopes to consume our data and become even stronger,” Motimon said.

“You mean eat you?” said Takeru.

“Nothing so impersonal,” growled Tsunomon.

“Put me down, Taichi,” said Koromon. “I need to fight.”

“What are you talking about? You can’t fight that thing!”

“No, Koromon is right, it’s time. We haven’t waited this long just to have it all end here!” Motimon agreed, hopping forward.

“I’m going too,” peeped Pyocomon, wriggling away from Sora.

“Don’t be foolish! Even if you work together, he’s too strong! You won’t be able to beat him!” she said sharply.

“But that’s precisely why we need to fight,” said Tsunomon.

“Yes, me too!” agreed Tokomon. “I’ll fight too!”

“And me!” said Niximon.

“Count me in!” growled Pukamon.

“Tanemon…you too?” asked Mimi.

Tanemon nodded, quiet, but no less fierce than the others and Mimi reluctantly let her go.

She was the only one who could bear to do it though.

The other digimon were forced to wrest themselves free of their partnered humans, Niximon included.

“Here we go!”

Helpless to do anything else, Harry and the others watched as their digimon raced forward on their small legs, wishing desperately for a miracle or a weapon.

Something, anything, that would help them stand between their partners and Kuwagamon.

Kuwagamon let out a grating roar, snapping his pincers and the small herd of charging digimon.

“I can’t just sit here!” Taichi burst out, running forward. “KOROMON!”

Harry’s ears were ringing.

It felt like all the hair on his body stood on end as that hot, helpless feeling burned itself into his chest.

In front of him the digimon were engulfed in a warm, white light, too bright to look at straight on.

“DIGIVOLVE!” someone shouted.

Harry felt something, some strain he’d barely been aware of, snap inside of him.

Echoing all around him, through him, and inside his own head, he could hear Niximon’s voice…

“Niximon digivolve to— _Vaporemon_!”

The light faded away in a rush, and there in front of them stood the digimon…but they were different.

“What happened?” he heard Sora ask.

“They…got bigger,” said Taichi, gawping.

Their digimon weren’t just bigger, though, they were completely unrecognizable from the creatures they’d been previously. Their voices were different too, less childlike, and more ferocious as they launched themselves at Kuwagamon

They were swatted away with one long arm, as Kuwagamon was still many times their size, but they shook off the blow much more easily.

Rolling to his feet the orange dinosaur-looking digimon shouted: “Pepper Breath!” and when he opened his jaws a whirling globe of fire the size of a basketball erupted from his mouth striking Kuwagamon in the face.

Kuwagamon roared in a combination of anger and pain and attempted to launch himself back into the air, where he would have the advantage.

“No, you don’t!” cried the plant-type digimon. “Poison Ivy!”

Her fingers elongated with a snap into vines that twined around Kuwagamon’s nearest leg.

“Boom Bubble!” called one of the flying digimon, a globe of swirling air bursting out of him in a rush.

Kuwagamon swayed, dazed, and was forced to land.

A smaller beetle-type digimon cried: "Super Shocker!" and a bolt of electricity hit Kuwagamon causing him to stumble. The white and purple furred digimon then rolled underneath his foot, tripping him and bringing him down to one knee.

“Bubble Blast!”

Harry startled as he found he recognized that voice.

Kuwagamon roared again as the stream of watery bullets struck him.

“Stand back,” the dinosaur warned.

The other digimon leapt away and once again he breathed a globe of fire onto a screaming Kuwagamon.

“Blue Blaster!” called another digimon, spitting a jet of sky-blue fire.

“Spiral Twister!” screed the pink bird-type digimon, green fire spilling out from her wings in a deadly vortex.

Kuwagamon cried out and stumbled back even further.

“All together now!”

The digimon with long-range attacks used them now, all at once, hitting Kuwagamon as hard as they could manage.

Kuwagamon reeled back, his carapace scorched by tongues of multi-colored fire, and staggered. Trying and failing to find his balance.

Then, finally, with a long ponderous groan like a felled tree, he toppled backward into the forest with an almighty crash.

“They made vaporware out of him,” Koushiro said, awed.

For a long moment there was silence.

Then the orange dinosaur wheeled around, a big, bright grin on his face, and started running back towards them.

“Taichi!” he called, delighted.

Taichi was already running for him, and they crashed into each other, embracing for a moment before Taichi started to bounce, struggling to lift him into his arms.

“You did it! Koromon or Agumon or whoever you are! You won!” he shouted, laughing and whooping.

That seemed to be all the cue the others needed to run to their digimon.

All around him the other kids and their partners were laughing and embracing, the relief of not being eaten by Kuwagamon making them more than a little giddy. Some of the kids, like Jou and Yamato, seemed a little leery of their partners in these new forms, while others accepted them without any reservations.

"How about that super shocker? Pretty wizard, yeah?" the smaller beetle type digimon said, hovering near Koushiro, who had a proud smile and a big thumbs-up for his digimon.

"Harry!” called that familiar voice, as Niximon ran into his outstretched arms.

She was still blue and sort of fox-shaped, if foxes had had fins for ears and long flukes at the end of their tails.

She was just as light as before despite being three or four times her original size, and rather than being covered in fluffy fur her skin was smooth and satin-soft, like good suede.

“Did you see me? Wasn’t that amazing?” she said wriggling happily.

Harry just hugged her more tightly in answer.

It had been amazing, but he was also pretty sure that he’d never been more afraid for someone else in his entire life and all he wanted to do was squeeze her until the ball of ice and razor-wire worry that had settled in his chest melted away.

Then Sora cried, "Taichi! Look out!"

Harry spun around in time to watch Taichi and Agumon as they were forced to dive out of the way of Kuwagamon yet again.

Kuwagamon let out an enraged bellow as he missed his target and his pincers slid into the rocky ground like a hot knife through butter right where the pair had been standing only a moment before.

“Bloody hell!” Harry swore.

"Guess we celebrated too soon," said Taichi. “Can you guys drive him back again?”

“No problem!” said Agumon, little tongues of flame already dribbling from between his teeth.

Harry set Niximon down and she yowled at Kuwagamon, her finned tail lashing like an angry cat’s.

As Kuwagamon struggled to pull his pincers out of the stone of the cliff, the ground beneath their feet began to shake.

The kids and their digimon cried out as they were knocked off their feet by the shaking.

As the larger digimon freed himself from the rock there was an ominous crack, like a gunshot.

Cracks began spider-webbing out from that first fissure, and, without warning, the once solid ground began to shift and crumble underneath their feet.

“Grab hold of something!” someone shouted.

Another person screamed.

“Harry!” cried Niximon, leaping back toward him.

As Harry lost his footing and toppled into thin air, the last thing he saw was Kuwagamon easily righting himself in the air with his massive wings, and as he began to fall in earnest that struck him as being entirely unfair.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, for those of you who read ver. 1.0 (or who continue reading from this chapter while I’m still editing, haha) you will notice that Sotomon // Senamon is now a ladylike digimon called Niximon // Vaporemon. This is due to my actually thinking about how digimon are named and deciding on their champion and ultimate forms.  
> She’s a foxlike, watery digimon our girl, and we’re going to remain on-brand throughout since she’s a made up digimon.  
> SO  
> How I came up with the names for Niximon // Vaporemon and visuals that go with this chapter!  
> (In-training) Niximon = Nixie + mon  
> A nixie is a type of water sprite. If you google “blue viximon” that’s what she looks like…  
> (I was originally very tempted to pair Harry with a Renamon…but then I came across some not-so PG images and thought to myself, yeah, better not do that)  
> (Rookie) Vaporemon = Vapor + mon  
> If you’re thinking that hmm, Vaporemon is only one letter off from Vaporeon the popular water-type eeveelution, that’s on purpose. Vaporemon looks like a Vaporeon…get on the google or the pinterest and pick your favourite version of Vaporeon and, tada, that’s our girl.  
> Not very original of me, I know, the reason for this is simply for ease of visuals and associations. I know a lot of people found visualizing Senamon to be very difficult in the first go around, and I think it made the experience frustrating for readers. I wanted to avoid that while also being able to create a digimon character that was essentially a blank slate personality-wise.  
> Aside from Renamon Harry also almost received a Kudamon, Dorumon, Herissmon and Veemon…that and the crest decision were honestly two of the bigger hurdles I had to jump before I could sit down with this rewrite.  
> Like or don’t like?  
> Let me know!  
> (Author’s notes will become shorter very shortly, promise)


	3. Chapter Three

For a few precious seconds, Harry was suspended in the air, limbs flailing, trying to catch his balance on the nothingness below him, and then Niximon was in his arms, and they were falling.

“Sora!”

“Koushiro!”

“Takeru!”

On either side of them, the digimon who could fly tried to catch and rescue their partners. Harry watched Sora’s digimon catch her by the shoulders and struggle to lift them both higher for a moment before the weight became too much and they started falling again.

Harry, falling faster now, saw Mimi and her digimon try to cling to the cliff face with vines, but the rack they grabbed onto flaked away with the rest of the debris and they too continued their tumble toward the river below.

“Brace for it!” Yamato called.

Harry sucked in a deep breath, and squeezed his eyes tightly shut.

Hitting the surface of the water was like slamming into concrete. Then the water rushed up over his head, cold and fast moving, silencing the world above.

Kicking and flailing blindly for the surface, he lost his hold on Niximon.

The current of the river kept a tight hold on him and he rolled arse over teakettle a few times before he caught hold of something solid and broke the surface once more.

Harry gasped for air and sputtered when he got more water then he was expecting.

“It’s okay! I’ve got you!”

Niximon.

She was swimming with powerful strokes of her tail, as graceful in the water as she was on land, her small body warm under his arm.

“Kick your feet, chosen! That’s it!”

Harry swished his legs through the water the way he’d seen it done on the telly, and by the littler kids at camp, and let Niximon steer them.

“Marching Fishes!” someone called.

Underneath Harry’s legs a life-raft of colourful fish took shape, pushing him and Niximon up and out of the river.

Harry coughed up a mouthful of river water

"Harry! Harry! Are you okay?" asked Niximon, poking her cold nose against the side of his neck. 

Harry nodded pushing his wet fringe out of his eyes. He propped himself up on one elbow, looking to see if the others were alright.

The others and their digimon sat or lay sprawled all around him, white-faced and shell-shocked but uninjured.

“Look out!” shouted Yamato.

Harry looked up.

Another big chunk of the rocky outcropping above them broke away from the cliff face and fell into the river.

A huge wave washed over their heads, swamping their life raft and leaving them soaked and sputtering as the fish deposited them onto the shore on the opposite side of the river, fading back into the water with the aftershocks of the wave.

Harry slumped, exhausted, against the nearest tree, Niximon still tucked up under his arm.

After a long moment, Yamato spoke.

“I knew we’d be okay. I wasn’t worried.”

If Harry could have found the strength, he would have thrown something at him.

“I think we might finally be out of danger,” said Sora.

“What was the deal with those fish?” panted Jou, his glasses dangling off the tip of his nose.

“Lucky for us, those fish were having a school reunion,” said Jou’s digimon, laughing. “Hah, just kidding! That was me! With Marching Fishes I can control fish at will!”

“So, it was you,” said Jou, a rare smile warming his face. “You really saved us. Thank you, Pukamon…I mean…”

“It’s Gomamon now.”

“Gomamon?”

“Mmhm.”

“And I guess you’re not Tokomon, then,” said Takeru, examining his digimon.

“Nuh uh, now I’m Patamon.”

“It’s because we digivolved!” Agumon said excitedly, hopping to his feet.

“Digivolved…what does that mean?”

“Digivolved,” parroted Koushirou. “You mean like a…digital evolution?”

“Evolution,” Taichi repeated.

“Normally, it’s when organisms in a species change to adapt better to their environment,” Koushiro explained. “I would say that digivolving is similar in that it’s what happens when they advance to the next level and become more powerful than before.”

“That’s exactly right, as expected from my chosen! From that digivolution I was able to change from Motimon to Tentomon!”

“And I was able to digivolve from Pyocomon to Biyomon,” the pink birdlike digimon next to Sora said, butting her head against Sora’s hand.

“First I was Tsunomon, now Gabumon,” Yamato’s digimon added.

“Which means that you’re not Niximon now either, right?” said Harry, glancing down at his digimon.

“Right,” she agreed. “I’m Vaporemon now.”

“And I’m Palmon!” Mimi’s digimon piped up.

“And you’re Agumon, right?” Taichi said. “I heard your voice inside my head…”

“Yes,” Agumon agreed. “It’s because we’re partners.”

“How d’you figure?”

“Digivolving is a very difficult process,” Agumon explained. “I haven’t been able to digivolve on my own in years, the only reason that I was able to do it now was because I can share your energy.”

“Most digimon spend years storing up enough energy to digivolve to their next level,” Vaporemon added. “This way is much faster.”

“Then…is it the same for you, Biyomon?” asked Sora. “You somehow shared my energy?”

“Yes,” Biyomon said.

“So, it stands to reason that each of you can share energy with one of us, right?”

“That’s exactly right,” said Tentomon.

“But how do you access our energy?”

“I don’t know, exactly,” Tentomon admitted. “But when I needed it, it was there.”

“Thanks for my magical powers, Mimi!” cheered Palmon.

“I don’t even know what I did. The whole thing makes my head spin,” complained Mimi, pouting.

“Will you be able to change back?” asked Takeru, unfolding one of Patamon’s ear-wings carefully.

“Probably,” said Patamon. “But I don’t think it would be easy.”

“Geez, when you guys digivolved you sure got a lot bigger,” said Taichi. “Does this mean that you’re something else now, or are you still digimon?”

“Digimon!” Agumon replied.

“I just want to point out that none of that makes any sort of logical sense,” said Jou.

“Does it need to?” asked Gomamon.

“Of course! Aren’t you worried about what will happen to you if I’m not around to borrow this so-called energy from?”

“Of course not, because I’ll be with you wherever you go!”

The older kids all shared a glance.

Harry had an idea of what they were thinking, what would happen to the digimon when they eventually returned home?

“Which brings us to the next question,” said Yamato. “What are we going to do now?”

“We need to find a road into town, get to the nearest payphone and call the police, or our parents.”

“Is there a town around here?” asked Taichi skeptically. “I don’t know about you guys, but I have no idea where we are or how we got here.”

“If we could get back to where we started, we might be able to find some clues,” suggested Sora.

“Easier said than done,” said Taichi.

Everyone glanced back the way they’d come.

There, above the thick treeline, was the peak of the mountain they’d fallen from.

“We were swept pretty far downstream…”

“That’s a long way, and it won’t be a picnic trying to get back up that cliff either,” said Yamato. “I say we forget about going back and explore a bit around here.”

“We shouldn’t explore anywhere,” Jou said, his arms crossed over his chest. “If there’s no road around the next logical thing to do is to stay put and wait for someone to find us.”

“That’s what they say to do in all those boring safety classes,” Mimi added. “Stay where you are so that the people looking for you can find you.”

“Is anybody looking for us, aside from that giant bug?” said Yamato. “I mean, you guys must have noticed, nothing around here looks anything like the campsite.”

“That’s why I think we should look for a road,” Jou said. “We’ve got to get to a place where we can find more people and some way of getting in contact with our parents.”

“Isn’t hiking through this forest dangerous?” asked Mimi. “What if there are more monsters like the one from before?”

“There are,” said Palmon cheerfully. “But don’t worry Mimi, I’ll protect you!”

“I don’t want to put anyone in danger,” said Yamato. “But I really don’t think staying put is going to help us.”

“Here’s a thought, hey Agumon, are there any other humans on this island?”

“Hoomans?” said Agumon. “You mean creatures like you?”

“Yeah.”

“I’ve never seen any,” said Agumon, shaking his head. “You’re the first ever. There’s never been anything but digimon here.”

“Okay, so if I’m hearing this right…you guys are all digimon,” said Taichi. “But these monsters, like Kuwagamon, they’re all digimon too?”

“That’s right,” agreed Vaporemon. “Most of the digimon around this part of the island have been here for a really long time and digivolved into higher levels.”

“So, they’re digimon, but bigger and stronger than you guys,” said Sora. “And this island…you call it File Island?”

“Is it really an island?” Yamato interjected.

“I was telling Taichi before, but I’ve never heard of such a place, if it exists it’s bound to be somewhere obscure and remote.”

“You’re saying that we’re not in Japan anymore,” Jou said. “That’s what you’re saying, right? That we’re not even in the same country!”

“Calm down Jou,” said Taichi. “Panicking isn’t going to help anyone.”

“Guys…what happens when it gets dark?” Sora put in, shivering even though it had to be thirty degrees out.

“Maybe it never gets dark,” suggested Yamato.

“That would be a highly unnatural phenomenon,” said Koushiro.

“So, it’d make as much sense as anything else around here,” Yamato retorted.

“Okay, well, as much fun as this is, we’re not getting anything accomplished sitting around here arguing,” Taichi announced, marching over to the river with Agumon trailing after him.

“Hang on a second, where do you think you’re going?” Yamato demanded.

“Back up on that cliff, I saw the ocean off this way. If we’re on an island we’re gonna need to get off it eventually, right? So, we’re going to need a boat or something.”

“Agumon just said there were no people here, and there never have been. Why would there be boats when there are no people around to use them?” said Harry, mostly to himself.

“I don’t know, what’s a boat?” asked Tentomon.

“Hey!” Koushiro said. “You understood Harry!”

“Of course, I did,” said Tentomon. “Didn’t you? He seemed to be speaking clearly to me. Harry, I don’t think your human friends can hear you very well, you’d better speak up!”

Harry flushed as the whole group turned to stare at him.

“Er…Thanks Tentomon, I’ll keep it in mind,” he said.

“It’s not that we can’t hear him,” Koushiro said. “But Harry was speaking in his native language, English, and out of all of us here only Mimi speaks it fluently.”

“Well, we digimon can all understand Harry just fine, Koushiro, it must be only you humans who have troubles with this language business,” said Tentomon.

“Harry is right though,” Mimi said with a long sigh, brushing invisible lint off her fringed skirt. “If Agumon is right and there really aren’t any people here, there won’t be any boats even if we do make it all the way to the ocean.”

“That’s a good point,” agreed Sora, nodding. “I know it’s a long way but, I don’t know, I think we should maybe try and get back up that mountain. It’s where all the clues about how we got here will be, and it’s where any people will come looking first when they figure out what happened to us.”

“If they can figure it out, and if they could get here after,” said Yamato. “I don’t know about you guys, but I remember some pretty wild and impossible stuff happening before we landed here. I’m not sure anyone could follow us even if they were somehow able to figure out what happened.”

“And if all that is true, we’re going to have to rescue ourselves,” Taichi pointed out. “Sitting around here talking about it all day isn’t going to cut it.”

"Vaporemon, will you translate for me? I don't think that Taichi's idea is such a bad one," Harry piped up. "If we get out of this forest, we could build a big signal fire on the beach and airplanes passing overhead or boats that have a route that passes this island might see it and come investigate. I saw that in a film once."

"Ooh, a bonfire! That sounds wonderful, I only wish we had marshmallows!" squealed Mimi.

“Hey that’s a pretty great idea!” Taichi agreed, ruffling Harry’s hair.

Harry huffed, and tried to flatten it down again to no avail.

“I can get on board with that,” agreed Yamato.

“Alright, so it’s a plan!” said Taichi. “Now let’s get going already!”

Together the group moved to follow Taichi along the bank of the river, where the ground was more or less flat and clear.

Gomamon and Vaporemon both took running leaps into the river and swam alongside the procession of their terrestrial friends.

“I’ve never seen trees like these before,” Sora commented. “They’re really beautiful.”

“Yeah, they’re really different,” Koushiro agreed. “At first I though it was just because they were sub-tropical but I know I’ve never seen anything like them before anywhere.”

“Whatever they are, they’re aggravating my hay fever,” Jou complained.

“Maybe this is an undiscovered island,” suggested Mimi.

“I’d say that’s possible,” said Yamato. “It’s not like we’ve ever heard of digimon before, but this place is full of them.”

“That begs the question, who came up with the name digital monsters anyway?” said Koushiro. “Calling them ‘digital’ implies a more machine-like composition, but clearly these digimon are organic.”

“There more like something out of a video game then any animal though,” Sora pointed out.

“And they talk,” added Yamato.

“Yes, they speak and understand multiple languages, have different abilities and forms, and yet they all identify as subspecies of the group digimon…”

Koushiro trailed off, with a mutter clearly lost in his own thoughts.

“So, Patamon, you were flying before, right?” Takeru piped up into the ensuing quiet.

“Yes, I can fly now! Watch!”

Patamon hopped into the air, flapping his little wings vigorously.

“So cool! But I think it’s faster if you walk,” said Takeru, hiding a smile behind his hand.

“I can fly much faster than that!” Biyomon declared.

There was no appreciable difference that Harry could see and he bit his lip to keep from smiling.

"Wouldn't it be easier to walk?" suggested Sora as she passed them.

With a sigh the two digimon landed and ran back to their partners looking a bit put out.

“It’s alright, you guys just need some practice,” Harry said encouragingly. "I used to not be able to run very far at all, but I had to practice running every day and I got loads better."

"Hey Harry, would you teach me English?" asked Takeru, "It sounds so different, plus it's cool! Like talking in a secret code!"

"Er—I can try, if you help me learn more Japanese," suggested Harry.

Patamon relayed the bargain to his partner.

"Sure!" Takeru agreed excitedly.

“Hey Palmon, you look a lot like a plant you know, even though the rest of you look more like animals…”

“Well I am a plant-type digimon,” said Palmon. “So, I kind of am like a plant, I can even perform photosynthesis!”

“That’s great! You should show me!”

“Mimi,” said Palmon. “Do you even know what photosynthesis is?”

“Not really,” said Mimi. “What is it?”

“If you don’t know what it is, I don’t really know how to explain it…” Palmon admitted.

"When I get back home this is gonna make one hell of a story," Taichi said looking over his shoulder at the group of kids trailing behind him and Agumon like bizarre ducklings.

"Yep," Agumon agreed.

"Of course, not a single soul will ever believe me."

"They won't believe any of us, but we'll all know what really happened," said Yamato with a laconic shrug.

“Yeah,” said Taichi. “I’m not gonna lie, I’m glad I’m not alone out here.”

“Yeah, me too,” said Yamato.

“Do you two smell that?” asked Gabumon. “There’s nothing like the smell of the ocean breeze.”

“I see it guys!” called Gomamon. “The ocean! We’re not far now!”

“Come on guys, we’re almost there!” called Taichi.

The group climbed the last hill and pushed through the underbrush, coming out on the crest of a shallow bluff, where the mouth of the river flowed into the ocean.

They all paused for a moment just admiring the view.

Harry had to admit it was pretty incredible. Vaporemon picked her way over to him and wound herself in between his legs like a cat.

“Isn’t it wonderful,” she sighed. “I love the ocean!”

“Everybody in the water!” called Gomamon.

“Let’s build a giant sand castle!” suggested Takeru.

“Too bad my bathing suit is back at camp,” sighed Mimi. “I want to go swimming, maybe get a nice tan…”

“We’re not here on vacation, Mimi-chan,” huffed Sora.

“Hey, everyone, pipe down and listen,” said Yamato.

Harry strained his ears and faintly, in the distance, he heard a sound like…ringing?

“Is that…a phone?” asked Taichi.

“Why is there a phone ringing in a place like this?” said Sora.

“Who cares? Let’s go answer it and find out!” Taichi said, taking off at a run.

The rest of the group followed him, and sure enough, as the rounded the bend and the grassy bluffs faded into a pristine white beach, they spotted the source of the ringing.

Five telephone booths stood, completely out of place, in the middle of the sandy beach.

“I told you!” whooped Jou. “I told you! All we needed was a phone! We’re saved!”

Taichi and Agumon broke out into a dead sprint in a bid to make it to the phone before it stopped ringing, but just as Taichi yanked the door open and reached out to grab the receiver, the phone stopped ringing.

“Why’d it stop?” asked Agumon.

“I don’t know,” Taichi said. “Wrong number?”

“I can’t believe there are phone booths out here in the middle of the beach,” said Sora.

“My theory is aliens,” said Koushiro. “This is clearly a trap.”

“They look like the phone booths you see normally,” Yamato commented.

“They’re the same as the one’s next to my house,” agreed Mimi.

“Maybe we are still in Japan!” said Jou.

“Well, hey, let’s see if we can find a place that’ll deliver and order a pizza,” suggested Yamato, grinning.

“Whatever you get, no anchovies for me!” chirped Mimi.

“I don’t know anyone in Japan who’d agree to put phones in the middle of a perfectly nice beach,” said Sora.

“They’re clearly here so that people can call their parents for a ride home,” Jou insisted.

“That doesn’t seem likely,” Harry said.

“Harry’s probably right, Jou,” Koushiro said. “There is absolutely no reason for these things to be here unless it’s an alien plot.”

Harry rolled his eyes.

“And that is even less likely,” he added.

“Koushiro, lend me ten yen!” Taichi said.

“What for?” asked Koushiro, already digging around in one of his many pockets.

“Isn’t it obvious? I’m calling home.”

“Here, you can use my phone card for that. The aliens can bill me.”

“I have a question,” said Gomamon. “What exactly is a parents?”

Jou leveled his digimon with an incredulous look.

“That’s it, I am out of here,” he declared, marching into the second phone booth.

“Your parents are the people who take care of you while you’re still to young and small to take care of yourself, Gomamon,” Harry answered, patting the digimon on his fluffy head to ease some of the sting from Jou’s insensitivity.

“Don’t you guys have moms and dads?” asked Mimi.

"I don't think so," Palmon answered.

"So then where do digimon come from?" asked TK

"We hatch from digieggs," Patamon answered.

"But who took care of you after you hatched?" Sora asked Biyomon.

"I don't remember, it was a long time ago," the bird-type digimon answered.

“Nii-san, do you have money? I wanna call mom!”

“We’ll call collect,” Yamato answered.

“I’m calling Daddy!” Mimi declared, picking a booth.

“I’m going to connect to the internet,” Koushiro said.

“Dibs on booth four!” cheered Sora.

The digimon all followed their partners to the telephones even though it was clear that they had no idea what the phones were for, precisely.

Harry, on the other hand, toed off his shoes and socks, rolled up the ragged hems of his jeans and padded through the flour-soft white sand to stand with his feet in the ocean.

Vaporemon followed him down to the shore, splashing happily in the little wavelets that lapped and his calves and ankles.

“I’ve never been to the ocean before,” Harry told her. “It sure is big.”

“It sure is,” agreed Vaporemon. “But Harry, don’t you want to call your parents, like the others?”

Harry glanced down. She was blinking up at him with her big blue eyes, and he gave her a scritch behind one finned ear.

“I don’t really have any parents,” he told her. “Mine died in a car accident when I was a baby. I don’t even remember what they looked like.”

“Then, who takes care of you?”

“Ah, well, I’m living with my aunt and uncle, but if I called them, they’d probably just leave me here,” Harry said.

"They don't sound like very nice people," Vaporemon pointed out.

"They're not nice people," Harry shrugged. "Not to me anyway. Honestly, I'd rather stay here with you."

Vaporemon butted her head up against Harry's knee.

"I'm glad. I’d rather stay with you too."

A few minutes late Koushiro wandered over to join them, Tentomon buzzing in his wake.

“Any luck,” Harry asked.

“No,” Koushiro answered, plopping into the sand next to Harry’s shoes with a gusty sigh. “I’m telling you, Harry, it’s a twisted alien plot! I couldn’t even rig the phone for a dial up internet connection.”

“What about the others? Did they manage to get a hold of someone?”

“None of the others was any more successful than Koushiro,” Tentomon reported.

“No matter who we call all we get is random information,” Koushiro explained. “It looks like Jou is trying every number he knows. He’s really torn up about the whole thing, but it looks like we really might be on our own out here.”

Looking back at the phone booths Harry could just make out the figure of Jou, stabbing another set of buttons and running a hand through his hair. The others had long since given up and were watching him with mild interest. Even Gomamon had abandoned him to go play in the water. 

“We should probably go back to others and figure out what our next plan is going to be.”

Harry sighed but he turned away from the water and trudged back up to the beach scooping up his shoes and socks as he went.

The sand stuck to his wet feet and legs and to Vaporemon who wrinkled her nose at the sensation.

"Hey guys," Taichi said when they got within hearing range of the rest of the group, "Did you see any driftwood or anything we can use to start that signal fire we talked about?"

"Nothing like that, I'm afraid," Koushiro said shaking his head, "This beach has to be one of the cleanest I've ever seen."

"Alright, then, we should probably get back to the forest and start picking up fallen branches or something," he said getting to his feet.

"Wait a sec, just because we can't call out doesn't mean that other people can't call in," Yamato pointed out. "The phone was ringing before. I think we should stay here for a while and see if anyone calls. Besides, everyone could use a rest."

Yamato had a good point.

Mimi, Sora and Takeru were sprawled out in the sand in an exhausted heap.

Harry’s stomach gave a familiar empty twinge and Harry sighed. So much for his regular meals. He missed camp already.

"I'm getting pretty hungry too," said Koushiro.

"You know why, cause we haven't eaten anything all day!" said Taichi.

The blizzard had hit camp just before breakfast so none of them had had a chance to eat anything beforehand.

They had only been wandering around this strange island for half a day, but with everything that had happened it seemed like so much longer.

"Okay, break time!" Taichi declared.

"Does anyone have anything to eat?" asked Sora. "I think all I have is…" she paused as her hand encountered the little device she had clipped to her belt, "…that gadget that fell out of the sky before."

"I forgot all about those weird gizmos," Taichi said reaching under the hem of his shirt to retrieve his.

"If anyone has a pink one, I'll trade," Mimi said glancing at hers.

“It looks like everyone got the same,” said Yamato.

"What are they anyway?" asked Takeru.

“If I could take mine apart…” Koushiro mused, his face taking on that faraway look it got when his mind was busily making connections.

Then his stomach burbled loudly, interrupting whatever train of thought he’d taken and bringing him back to earth.

He flushed, and favoured them all with a sheepish look, “That is, after I get something to eat. I’m famished.”

"Well, the only thing I've got is my emergency supplies," Sora said reaching into her pink belt-pouch, "It's got a first aid kit, some bandages and some antibiotics but that's about it."

"I have my trusty laptop computer, and a digital camera, oh, and a small cellphone too. Of course, none of them has worked since we got here," Koushiro said with a put-upon sigh. “I was sure I had a full charge on most of this equipment too.”

"I still can't believe you brought all that computer stuff with you to summer camp," Taichi said.

"Well, what do you have?" Koushiro countered.

"Uh, well, there's my pocket telescope," Taichi looked over at Yamato and Harry. "What about you guys?"

“Nothing to eat,” said Harry.

"Sorry," Yamato shrugged, his hands in his pockets, "I bring any food with me either."

“I did!” said Takeru, swinging his backpack off his shoulders and revealing a small hoard of junk food.

“Ooh, look at all those goodies! Why don't you be a good little boy and share some of that food with dear, sweet Mimi."

"Don’t worry Mimi, I happy to share, you're the best!" Takeru said with a wide grin, "Isn't she cute?"

“Where did you get all that?” asked Yamato.

“I bought it at the rest stop with the money mom gave me.”

“Mimi-chan, what did you bring? Your bag looks pretty big,” asked Sora.

“Oh, this? Well, I’ve got some cooking fuel, a swiss army knife, a compass, flashlight, and a bunch of other things like that.”

“You’re pretty prepared for survival,” Yamato said.

“It’s been a long time since I went camping and I wasn’t exactly sure what I’d need…so, I borrowed all my dad’s gear…without telling him.”

“You know, you really don’t need to bring stuff like this to a kid’s summer camp. Though I’m not complaining since we might end up needing it,” said Taichi.

"We could use the cooking fuel to start that signal fire," Yamato suggested.

"We still don't have any wood," Taichi pointed out.

"I vote we barbecue some telephone," said Sora.

“If there were any flammable components, I’d join you happily,” said Koushiro.

“Okay so that’s everyone except Jou. Looks like he’s still making calls, but I doubt he brought snacks since he’s such a stickler—wait a sec! Jou’s got the emergency food supply!”

“That’s lucky!”

“Jou! Hey, Jou! You’re carrying the emergency rations!”

“Don’t you know it’s rude to interrupt someone when they’re on the phone?” snapped Jou.

“We need your bag!”

“Oh, this? I’ve been trying to hand this off to Mimi-kun all morning,” said Jou, finally leaving the phone booth long enough to stomp over to where Mimi was sitting with Palmon.

“Me?”

“Yes! Mimi-kun, it was your turn to take charge of the group’s emergency rations! You can’t just put them down and leave them! You need to keep the bag on you at all times in case of an emergency!”

“But it’s so heavy!”

“Don’t be so selfish! You have got to stop thinking only of yourself and do something for somebody else for a change! Take a little responsibility!”

“Hey, whoa, don’t fight!” said Taichi. “The important thing is knowing that we have something to eat. Now let’s all sit down and have some lunch!”

“Alright,” Jou said, setting the bag down in the centre of their little circle. “Let’s figure this out. Each group is given a bag of emergency rations that are supposed to feed the whole group three meals, for three days. Since our group had six…six times three times three is…”

“Fifty-four,” Koushiro answered promptly.

“Right! So, if we add in Takeru’s snacks and divide that evenly between eight people that gives us, uh…”

“About enough food for two days,” Koushiro said.

“Right,” agreed Jou.

“We could ration it down to two meals a day,” suggested Harry. “Make it last longer since we don’t know how long we’re going to be stuck here, or if we’ll be able to find more food.”

“But even if we do that, if you count the digimon we only really have enough food for today and maybe tomorrow morning,” Sora pointed out.

"Oh…right…" sighed Jou.

"Not a problem!" said Gabumon, "We digimon hunt and forage for ourselves."

"Yes, no need to include us in your calculations," Tentomon agreed.

"Are you sure Biyomon?" asked Sora.

"Of course, absolutely, we can do alright on our own," she said. “We’ve been feeding ourselves up until now, haven’t we?”

"Great, that’s a big help," said Jou. "Let's go ahead and divide the food we have between the eight people here."

“This is great!” said Taichi, opening one of the bars and handing another to Agumon. “I could eat a dozen of these!”

“Taichi!” snapped Sora.

“What do you think you’re doing?” demanded Jou. “We just agreed this food is for humans!”

“It’s fine, isn’t it? Don’t be so stingy, Jou!”

"It's already done Jou, there's no sense wasting time whining about it," sighed Yamato, glaring.

"Taichi can just go hungry, cause that counts as two of his meals, no big deal," Sora said.

"Hey!" Taichi protested.

Suddenly, Biyomon hopped to her feet, feathers flared and eyes narrowed nearly to slits.

“What is it?” asked Sora.

“Something’s coming,” chirped Biyomon.

“What kind of something?”

“A big something.”

“Do you hear that?” asked Takeru.

There was a low rumble underneath them, like a train passing through the underground, and, all of a sudden, geysers of water began to sprout from the beach.

One by one the telephone booths were destroyed, and a little further down the beach the sand bulged up into a hill.

The sand slithered down the hill, revealing a massive spiked shell underneath.

“Oh no!” cried Tentomon. “Shellmon! This area must be his territory!”

“What’s a Shellmon?” demanded Koushiro.

“Shellmon is a highly territorial champion-level digimon that lives under beaches and riverbanks. His shell acts a little like a drill, helping him to dig vast burrows underground. He’s slow moving but powerful!”

“Run for it!” cried Takeru.

Everybody scrambled to obey. Racing away from the water, leaving their belongings abandoned in the sand.

“Now what?” demanded Sora.

They’d reached the cliffs on the far side of the beach but they were to steep to get up without climbing.

Out of the giant spinning shell, Shellmon emerged.

He was a dinosaur-type digimon, his body a bright salmon pink with a head crowned with a mop of seaweed green tentacles, and long fingers tipped with suction cups. He was also at least fifteen feet tall, and bellowing at them angrily.

“Everybody!” called Jou, who was already scaling the cliff face. “Up here, this way!”

Jou was a surprisingly adept climber. He made it most of the way to the top of the embankment, before Shellmon roared and attacked him.

Another geyser of water burst from the crown of his head, and blasted Jou clear off the ledge, sending him tumbling towards the beach.

Yamato and Taichi rushed forward to break his fall.

“Jou!” cried Gomamon.

Shellmon turned his attention to Gomamon and blasted him down the beach and into the surf with his water cannon.

“Digimon attack!” cried Agumon.

The digimon scrambled to get between their chosen and Shellmon, Agumon leading the charge.

“Pepper Breath!” he cried.

The fireball that sprouted from Agumon’s mouth hit Shellmon full in the face, giving the other digimon time to catch up to him.

Gabumon, Tentomon, and Biyomon reached Agumon first, and tried to execute their own attacks.

The key word there being tried. None of them were very successful.

Gabumon’s Blue Blaster was barely more that a puff of blue smoke. Biyomon could barely keep herself in the air as she tried to generate her Spiral Twister. Tentomon produced a small crackling spark between his wings, but even that was nowhere near powerful enough to deliver a bolt of electricity.

“Something’s wrong!” called Koushiro.

“Their attacks aren’t working!” said Yamato.

Shellmon blasted the assembled digimon off their feet and out of the air with another burst from his water cannon.

Agumon sprung right back up, but the others lay in the sand, too exhausted to move.

Sora, Yamato, and Koushiro, darted forward to kneel next to their partners, checking them over for injuries.

Meanwhile, Patamon, Vaporemon and Palmon used the distraction the others had provided to get within attacking range.

"Boom Bubble!" cried Patamon, but his attack fizzled out before it could reach Shellmon and he was swatted out of the air by one of his green tentacles.

"Patamon!" shouted Takeru.

"Palmon, get out of there!" shrieked Mimi.

Palmon, just like the others, attempted to use her Poison Ivy attack, only to find herself staring at her hands in shock as no vines grew.

“Vaporemon! Duck!” called Harry.

Vaporemon dodged nimbly out of the way of a whip like tentacle and scrambled back down the beach towards Harry.

“Pepper Breath!” cried Agumon, getting between Vaporemon and the attacking Shellmon.

“What’s happening?” demanded Koushiro. “Why is it only Agumon who can attack?”

“We’re just too hungry,” Tentomon groaned.

“Gabumon?”

“I don’t have any strength.”

“Guys, Agumon is the only one who had anything to eat!” said Sora.

“That explains it,” agreed Koushiro. “With the energy expenditure of digivolving and fighting Kuwagamon…”

“None of the other digimon have the reserves they need to fight,” Yamato finished.

"Agumon, looks like it's just us!" Taichi called, running forward to join his digimon.

"Alright, then give me a diversion!" Agumon called back.

Taichi began running across the sand shouting.

"Hey, Shellmon, ugly! Down here! Over here!"

“Be careful, Taichi!” Sora yelled after him.

As a distraction, Taichi worked beautifully.

Shellmon turned his attention on him and Agumon crept up in his blind spot and hit him with another fireball at close range.

Shellmon groaned, shaking his head, dazed.

Taichi picked up a long piece of broken metal from one of the smashed telephone booths and began using it to hit and jab Shellmon in the sensitive looking flesh that joined the digimon to his hard shell.

Shellmon rumbled angrily, but was too large and unwieldy to escape Taichi’s onslaught.

"Look out, Taichi!" called Yamato.

One of Shellmon’s tentacles had snaked down behind Taichi, and wrapped him up pulling him off his feet and dangling him in the air.

"Hang on Taichi!" shouted Agumon.

Agumon made as if to charge Shellmon, but Shellmon gave a low roar and pinned Agumon to the beach with one massive hand.

"Get out of the way!" yelled Taichi as Shellmon turned his attention back to the fallen digimon and their chosen.

With a low roar, he blasted them even further down the beach with his water canon.

Harry landed sprawled half on top of Vaporemon’s lithe body and pulled himself up to crouch protectively over his dazed digimon. Spitting the sand from his mouth, he looked up through the dripping curtain of his hair, watching with growing dread as Taichi squirmed against Shellmon’s crushing grip.

“Everyone, just run!” called Taichi. “Go! Get out of here!”

Taichi screamed as Shellmon tightened his grip.

“Taichi!” shouted Agumon, alarmed. “Taichi!”

On Taichi’s belt, the strange little device began to glow and beep urgently.

“Digivolve!” cried Agumon.

Light gathered around Agumon, just as it had when the digimon had digivolved to fight Kuwagamon, building and building like a rising wave.

“Greymon!” Taichi bellowed, like a war cry.

The light faded, and Shellmon was tossed to the side as Greymon shrugged off his hold, and rose to his full height.

Taichi yelped as he hit the sand rolling for a few feet before staggering upright, apparently uninjured.

Greymon shifted so that he was between Shellmon and Taichi and let out a bellowing roar that rattled through Harry’s bones.

He was huge. Built like a T-rex and still vibrant orange, stripped with blue. A boney brown helmet complete with sharp looking horns had also grown to protect his head.

Shellmon righted itself and charged Greymon headfirst, trying to bring him down with a tackle. Greymon caught the other digimon and held his ground. Not giving and inch.

“Come on!” Taichi shouted in encouragement.

Shellmon lowered his head and attempted to overpower Greymon with a quick blast of his water cannon, but Greymon dodged with surprising speed for his size, and countered the jet of water with a stream of flame, sending huge gouts of steam streaming into the air.

Using the fog for cover Greymon managed to get his horned snout under Shellmon and use that leverage to toss him high into the air over the ocean.

“Nova Blast!” rumbled Greymon.

A fireball the size of a small car erupted from between Greymon’s powerful jaws.

It struck Shellmon in the middle while he was still in the air, eliciting a shriek from the defeated digimon and propelling him even further out to sea.

Greymon gave a triumphant roar that was echoed by Taichi’s whooping shout, shaking his great muscled neck.

Before he could take more than two steps however, he groaned, his body flooding with light again and shrinking as he de-digivolved back into Agumon, and lay belly-down in the sand.

“Agumon!” Taichi shouted, dropping to his knees in the sand next to his partner. “Are you alright? You changed back! Talk to me buddy!”

“Taichi…” moaned Agumon. “Do you have anything to eat?”

“Anything for you, buddy, you were amazing!” Taichi exclaimed, earning himself a weak grin from Agumon.

“I vote that we feed our digimon and worry about meals for ourselves later,” Koushiro said. “All in favour?”

“Aye!”

With that ringing endorsement, a feast of emergency rations was laid out for the digimon, who gobbled it up gratefully.

“Chew, and then swallow,” Harry scolded Vaporemon as she tried to swallow one of the bars whole.

“No need to rush, there’s plenty, and you can have as much as you want,” Sora said, kneeling next to Biyomon.

"Well," said Taichi surveying the damage done to the phone booths, hands on his hips. "There's no reason to stay here now."

“What about the signal fire?” asked Yamato.

"Shellmon wasn't destroyed," Koushiro pointed out. "Just temporarily removed. We should pack up and leave before he decides he wants to come back for round two."

"True enough,” agreed Yamato. "Who wants to break the bad news to Jou?"

Jou had found a phone that was mostly intact among the wreckage and was desperately trying to make it work.

“Jou!” called Taichi. “We can’t stay here, man, pack it in!”

"In that case," Jou put in shrilly, standing up and leaving his precious telephone. "We should go back to the forest because if anyone's looking for us that's where they'll go!"

"Jou, we've had this conversation before," Sora said gently. "Even if there are people looking for us back at camp, we're clearly so far from there that they might not even know where to start looking. Besides all that we fell off a mountain and floated down a river to get here and getting back is a really big job."

"Plus, if we go back up there, we could run into Kuwagamon," Mimi added as she packed up the sparse remnants of the digimon picnic.

"Listen, even considering the possibility of an alien trap, logically speaking, if there are phones here, there must be people around to use them, or be trapped by them," Koushiro said. "Perhaps Agumon and the other digimon are misguided in saying that there aren't other humans on this island. I think it makes sense to try and find those people."

“That…does make sense…” sighed Jou.

"It certainly does," Sora said.

"Except, we could wander around for days and never find anything!" Jou burst out.

"Or we could find some real help, food, shelter, an adult to explain what's going on and where we are," Yamato pointed out.

"It's the best plan we've come up with so far," Tai agreed. "So, let's get going! We're burning daylight!"

"Anywhere you want to go, I'll go Taichi! You just pick the direction!" Agumon said grinning widely.

"Then let's get out of this place!"

"And let the monsters beware!" added Yamato.

"My plan is to avoid the monsters altogether, yep, that's my plan," said Jou firmly.

"Not a bad plan, all things considered," Harry said, moving to walk next to Koushiro.

"Why do I get the feeling I'm being made fun of?"

"Lighten up Jou," said Gomamon. "Where's your sense of adventure?"

"Didn't anyone ever tell you guys that adventuring is dangerous?"

"Come on Joe, we're leaving!"

“Right then, everyone, make sure that you don’t leave anything behind!”

“Hurry up, Jou! Or we’ll end up leaving _you_ behind!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please let me know your thoughts! I hope you enjoyed, but am, as always, open to comments and suggestions for improvement!

**Author's Note:**

> EDITED FROM AND CROSS-POSTED ON FFN
> 
> For those of you who were optimists and followed the original version of this fic during my five-year hiatus, congratulations! Your efforts have paid off! I am posting this fic concurrently with the rewrite of the original story, Keepers of the Worlds, on ffn!
> 
> I began this fic seven years ago in 2012 and came to the conclusion that it needed to be completely edited five years ago…and only just getting around to actually committing to this rewrite here in 2020 (thanks COVID). Funnily, I began serious work on this rewrite once before, almost two years ago precisely in May of 2018 but only got through one chapter (this one, which I then edited again...) before stopping.  
> Still, this fic, much like Digimon Adventure 01, holds a special place in my heart and I can only hope that I am now more equal to the task of bringing my imaginings to life.
> 
> Needless to say, my writing style, my process, and my ideas about where this story should take us have changed a lot in the past five years and I can only hope that those of you who started this journey with me seven years ago can benefit from the improvement.
> 
> The biggest changes from the original fic include not following the English Dub word for word, using the Japanese names for the original chosen children, and a change in Harry's digimon (which hurt me to do but will hopefully make the visuals easier for readers), and projected crest.
> 
> This is a big project so we're breaking it down into baby steps, I hope to be finished Arc One - Part One by the end of May 2020. It is outlined to be 8 chapters, including the rewrite of the six original chapters I had posted, covering the first 8 episodes and about 60k words with an average of 6000 words per chapter...so now that I've said that lets see how that goes...
> 
> As a part of this rewrite I went through and read every single review for a second time paying particular attention to your questions, thoughts and criticism and I am overwhelmed (read: crying) at the amount of support I've received over the years with this story. 
> 
> In hopes that this will give a little something back to you guys I am committed to responding promptly to all reviews and comments on this work starting today and will be glad to answer any other questions there!
> 
> Congrats if you made it this far down in my ramble, I hope you enjoyed the chapter!
> 
> Til next time!


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